Dividends of a diverse board

Charities are being urged to recruit more women, young people and ethnic minority candidates to better reflect their communities

Underrepresented: Helen Saxton is one of two women on an eight-strong board; according to a recent study, only 17% of charities have a female chair. Photograph: Stephen Shepherd
Stephen Shepherd/Stephen Shepherd

As a teenager, Helen Saxton used to enjoy hanging out with her friends every weekend in a park in the heart of Lincolnshire. They would spend hours chatting, swapping stories and catching up with the gossip.

But all that changed when one of her close friends, a park regular, killed himself after suffering in silence from depression. It was a tragedy that shocked the community and had a lasting impact on Saxton. It was this experience that inspired Saxton, now aged 30, to become a trustee two years ago for Gofal, a mental health charity in Wales that supports people with a range of problems.

Giving up her time to volunteer when she already has a stressful full-time job as an accountant makes Saxton unusual. But as a young female trustee she is a rarity in the charitable sector. Research by the Charity Commission shows the average trustee is a white 57-year-old male, and just 0.5% of trustees are aged 18-24 and 2% aged under 30.

For Saxton, becoming a trustee was a chance to "give something back to society". She says: "I chose Gofal because of my experience of having a close friend commit suicide. There is also a lot of stress-related illness in my profession – and I firmly believe in the charity's work."

Creative recruitment

For the last two and a half years she has been working alongside two other women on the eight-strong board, which is responsible for making decisions about the charity's direction and activity.

Having such a diverse board is welcomed by the Charity Commission, which launched a drive to recruit trustees from a wider range of backgrounds as part of last year's National Trustees' Week. Alarmed by the findings of its research, the Commission urged charities to think more creatively about recruitment rather than draw on existing volunteers or use word of mouth or personal contacts.

It is too early to say whether the commission's campaign has paid off. The issue was raised again this year when a separate study, published by Women Count, showed that of the top 100 charities by income, four had no women on their boards and only 17% had female chairs.

Furthermore, it is not just women that the Charity Commission wants charities to recruit. Commissioners say a diverse board that includes young people and those from minority backgrounds gives increased accountability for a charity's actions and greater assurance that the organisation is fair in all its dealings.

But it is not just the charities that benefit. Young people in particular can gain a variety of skills that they would otherwise not necessarily acquire during the early stages of their career.

This was the case for charity worker Alex Swallow, who became a trustee at the age of 27 for Centre 404, a London-based charity that supports people with learning disabilities.

After working for six months as a volunteer, he became a trustee – and picked up a whole new range of skills. But it was only when he attended a national conference for trustees that he realised there were very few people his age.

Swallow set up a networking group on LinkedIn, Young Charity Trustees, which has its own website and supports other people who are interested in volunteering. The group also has more than 3,000 followers on Twitter.

"Until I became a trustee, I had no understanding of what a trustee did," says Swallow. "The biggest thing it has given me is the chance to know an organisation from top to bottom."

But it is not only the young person who gains experience, the charity also benefits from having a new and different perspective and from gaining a potentially lifelong supporter, adds Swallow. He believes young people need to have confidence in their skills, while charities need to reach out to people of all ages and backgrounds.

This may not be as easy as it sounds, according to 62-year-old Naveed Ahmed, chairman of the trustees of the Enfield Asian Welfare Organisation – a charity that promotes support and day care for elderly Asians in the north London borough.

Ahmed, who spent half his life in India before moving to the UK, became a trustee two years ago when he retired as a data manager for Tesco. He says part of the problem is "there is no cultural precedent for ethnic communities to participate".

Ahmed says: "In the UK there is a greater spirit for volunteering – there is not the same drive in India. There is still the feeling that the community will look after you. I think people from different ethnic minorities will get more involved, because it is already happening in the workforce."

The Charity Commission does not keep statistics on trustees from black and minority ethnic groups, but says it knows anecdotally they are under-represented on charities' boards.

" It is not just a question of getting more young people involved but getting charities to be more open-minded," says Sarah Miller, head of press and public affairs at the Charity Commission. "That will take time."

Training: a chance to gain skills and confidence

First-time trustees can find the job a demanding role and need to learn a range of useful new skills. Training can help with this, but there is no one-size-fits-all template for trustee induction.

However, trustees must be aware of the legal requirements and induction should cover what Neal Green, senior policy adviser at the Charity Commission, calls "the essentials". These include the governing document, finance, a role description and a basic introduction to trusteeship such as the commission's guide, The Essential Trustee.

Hannah Edwards

Green says trustee training does not have to be monitored or accredited, but additional formal training can come from accountancy and governance advisers who specialise in charities. Desirable skills for trustees are also set out in the national occupational standards, published by SkillsThird Sector. The standards can be used in conjunction with the voluntary code on good governance, which is available from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.

Skills development does not end with induction and both trustees and their charities should regularly assess training needs, says Colin Nee, a trustee for a large art foundation, who has also worked as a chief executive in the charity sector for 20 years.

Nee says: "[Charities] should offer ongoing training and possibly a mentor from the board. The right support for a new trustee can make the difference between a board being effective or floundering."Stephanie Sparrow